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At least five people died and eight were injured on Sunday when three men opened fire on a dozen people gathered in a house in Guayaquil, one of the cities most affected by crime and drug trafficking in Ecuador.
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According to witnesses, several men arrived on two motorcycles in the Isla Trinitaria sector, in the south of the city, and “fired several shots” both inside and outside the house where a birthday party was being celebrated and some of the guests were sitting in chairs on the sidewalk.
“So far we have five dead and eight wounded,” police colonel Fabary Montalvo told the press. One of the dead is a police officer, who was off duty, and was shot several times in the head, he added.
Situated between Colombia and Peru, the world’s largest cocaine producers, Ecuador is experiencing the worst escalation of violence in its recent history. Crimes related to drug trafficking have caused the homicide rate to almost double between 2021 and 2022, from 14 to 25 per 100,000 inhabitants.
On May 25, at least six people were killed and as many injured after gunmen opened fire at a restaurant in the tourist town of Montañita.
Two days earlier, armed men entered a funeral home in the nearby port of Manta and opened fire on those attending a wake, killing four people and wounding eight.
Authorities attribute the violence to conflicts between gangs and cartels over control of trafficking routes along the Pacific, a strategic corridor for transporting drugs to the United States and Europe. (with AFP)
